Late in the evening on December 21st, I heard local police officers dispatched to an apartment fire on the other side of town, so I grabbed my camera and flash and headed that way, arriving just ahead of the on duty crew of firefighters…it was a very cold night and they were short of help, with firefighters on the way from St Clair, fifteen minutes away. Damon Sumpter, one of the off duty officers, lives across the street from this complex and he came over to help them hand jack the supply line from the pumper to the hydrant, a good couple hundred feet away. There were flames coming out of the middle apartment, around an air conditioner unit that was like a window unit but in a solid wood wall instead of a window…firefighter Nick White is pulling hose in front of  Apartment 32 and headed toward the flames as Captain Dave Konys, riding extra on the truck, checks the front door to the apartment….

…it is a bit of a ghostly image above…I shot it on aperture priority, when I should have had it on program, the flash illuminated everything fine, but I had to manually turn the camera off to get the image as it is, rather than wait ten seconds or more for the shutter to close on its own. I then shot from there on in program  mode, which I normally do at night. As the guys were straightening out the hoseline and preparing to attack the fire, I shot a couple of quick photos without the flash, only the strobe lights on the pumper illuminating the building as well as the flames on the other side of the apartment….

Apartment Building Fire 323 Jones Street , Apt 32 2021-1221

Firefighters were able to make a quick knockdown of the fire….

…while it took much longer to remove the smoke from the apartment…and a State Fire Marshal was contacted to respond for an investigation as things looked a bit suspicious. No one believed to be home at the time of the fire and all other occupants of that unit were evacuated prior to arrival of the firefighters. St Clair firefighters arrived and assisted with overhaul and repacking the five inch supply line.

I heard Cuba and Bourbon Fire Departments toned out for a House Fire on Hwy P north of Cuba one morning and shortly after Cuba`s arrival, a second alarm was dispatched, bringing Sullivan, Steelville, and Beaufort-Leslie Fire Districts to the scene as well. I arrived shortly behind Sullivan`s Pumper 854.

I didn`t know it at the time, but found out soon after walking up, that there was an Animal Control Officer there because several dogs were running loose on the property…

….and then I learned that firefighters making initial entry, discovered several dogs inside the residence in heavy smoke, all of them were rescued…several law enforcement officers were on scene assisting as well.

Firefighters encountered heavy fire and smoke near the back wall of the residence on arrival, and initially it was believed a handicapped resident might be inside….

…but luckily it turned out no one was inside the house except the dogs, and fortunately they were rescued by firefighters shortly after their arrival….one of the medics had a couple of puppies in her arms even…

the fire was called in by a neighbor who lives down the road, talked to him briefly on the scene. Firefighters had their hands full on this one but did a great job in bringing the fire under control and dealing with the number of dogs on scene.

On Monday evening, around 5:30 pm, I was at Central Market getting a sandwich for work the next day, when I noticed a huge cloud of obnoxiously black smoke rising high in the air about two blocks south of the grocery store. Smoke like that is usually a good indicator of a structure fire, so I drove in that direction to see what was on fire…as I did so, I noticed alot of vehicles in front and behind me, other drivers with the same idea as I had. I drove south on Church Street to the Elementary School complex, and turned left on to Washington Street…. and as I did so, the smoke cloud banked down to ground level from the high wind driving it out of the south, and all I could see was the playground on fire. I turned around in a nearby driveway, returned to park next to the Sullivan Elementary School and then walked down the sidewalk to get a better idea of what was on fire…I shot a few videos with my phone camera and then shortly afterward, Brush Truck 828 arrived with Firefighters Devin Baker and Quinton Hildebrandt…Quinton had been training Devin on the operation of the brush truck and they spotted the smoke from Stanton and came to investigate. Devin put the pump into operation quickly and Quinton manned the brush hoseline…Pumper 854 was also responding to the call from Station 5….

As Quinton was preparing to attack the fire, I wondered if water alone would have any effect on this type of fire, figuring at some point that foam might be required to control and extinguish the fire…Quinton told me that he was thinking the same thing, but thought maybe he could at least cool it down til 854 and their crew arrived with the foam….

I think all of us watching, were mildly surprised that Quinton`s attack was having a good effect on the extremely hot burning fire….

…and as Pumper 854 arrived, Quinton and Devin had the fire knocked down and under control, requiring no larger lines to be deployed or operated…I left the scene as firefighters were mopping the scene up. A week later, Sullivan Police Officers completed their investigation and had three juveniles in custody for the crime of Arson….

I was collecting druse quartz at the Haunted Ridge Druse Farm on Saturday April 17th, when I had a text from a friend asking if I had heard from a friend asking if I went to the multiple house fires near the old Green Lantern area…told him I was rockhunting and had no clue what was happening in town. When I got back, I checked the Independent News Facebook page and found some photos other folks had taken while driving by on I-44…

…these photos were taken by Mark Pinnell while passing by behind the structures…there are several small bungalows up on the hill on the South Service Road just east of Sullivan and the Lowes Store. After returning home, I found out the fires are suspicious in nature and under investigation. Hope they catch whoever would torch multiple homes like that in a historic area of Sullivan no less.

Around 7:30 pm on March 1st, 2021, Sullivan Fire Department was toned out for a Residential First Alarm, House Fire at 75 Miramigoa Drive in Miramigoa Park, which is a private community located between Meramac State Park and Meramac Caverns. Firefighters arrived to find the residence fully involved with live electrical lines and appeared to be vacant….there were several animal pens on the west side of the house, but did not appear to be occupied either…

Fires 2021-0301 House Fire 75 S Miramigoa Drive AVI 13

Captain Ray Enloe and his crew were first on scene with Pumper 854, Ray and Firefighter John Wayne Strothcamp were both manning hoselines at the initial attack and John had the electrical lines arcing right behind and above him for a few minutes while he was knocking down fire inside the southeast corner of the home, seen in the video at the bottom of this story. Sullivan had a good response on the call and firefighters from Bourbon and St Clair arrived quickly after as well.

Ray Enloe on the nozzle above and below…

Even after firefighters knocked down the flames, the heavy smoke and steam really made it difficult to see inside the residence and figure out exactly what was still going on inside the walls of the house…

Fires 2021-0301 House Fire 75 S Miramigoa Drive AVI 24

I left the scene as Crawford Electric was arriving to take care of the electrical hazard.

Shortly after 9 pm on the 17th of January, 2021, Sullivan Fire Department was toned out for a Residential First Alarm, Mobile Home Fire, at 1605 Springbluff Road. Turned out to be on the bad curve of Springbluff Road about a quarter mile from North and South Road. I could see the glow of heavy fire in the sky as I got close and was able to park in a small field close to the driveway for the residence. The entire front porch of the trailer was lit up with flames about 30 feet high and every bit of 40 to 50 feet long…my initial shot with my flash unit was taken at a slow shutter so the movement of flames and firefighters makes it appear I was not in focus…

….but then again, the exertion from running to the scene to get the shot may have caused me to be a bit shaky when I shot it too…however you can see the firefighters and the amount of fire they were dealing with quite well. They were a little light on manpower for a few minutes and had their hands full…Sullivan PD had responded to the scene as well, ahead of Franklin County, who had a report of a suspicious male running around the scene prior to arrival of firefighters, so police were enroute for security of the scene and protection of all personnel at the scene and in the area. I believe the resident may have been the person someone spotted and only because he was in the shadows when observed by the passerby. Captain Damon Sumpter and his crew stretched a couple of preconnect hoselines and attacked the fire, knowing they had help on the way….

Fires 2021-0117 Mobile Home Fire 1605 Springbluff Road AVI 105

The photo above and below were taken using the camera in my phone, no flash, right after shooting the video above with my Nikon D90 Camera…show Firefighter Joe Kincaid on the hoseline attacking the fire and Captain Damon Sumpter walking up to him in the photo below…

Additional units with manpower and water were still enroute as Damon and Joe continued to knock down the majority of the fire in the porch area…

..the fire began spreading to the right of the porch area and Damon attempted to knock it down as well, but ran out of hoseline…

Fires 2021-0117 Mobile Home Fire 1605 Springbluff Road AVI 129

Right after I took this photo, firefighters near the pumper shut down the line and added more hose to the line to extend it out 100 additional feet, and it was about then that St Clair and Beaufort-Leslie Firefighters arrived to assist Sullivan Firefighters….

Fires 2021-0117 Mobile Home Fire 1605 Springbluff Road AVI 138

I left the scene a few minutes later and Damon was utilizing his extra help from one end of the trailer to the other, with much of the flames inside the trailer now knocked down and the only flames seen now were under the trailer….